


He was a nerd he was a jock can I make it anymore obvious

by shrodingersgay



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-17
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-01 09:24:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13995276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrodingersgay/pseuds/shrodingersgay
Summary: About how it sounds, a good thruce high school au





	1. Chapter One

Collectively, in the twenty minutes of class, Thor had probably glanced over at Bruce so much he may as well have been staring at him for ten minutes straight. He didn’t really mean to, it just sort of happened now. Whenever he was in the same room as Bruce, he ended up looking at him, nervous and trying to figure out whether he should say something to him or not. 

 

Thor had realized he liked Bruce roughly a month back, when they’d been assigned to a project together, and now the thought never seemed to leave his mind. Bruce had been intelligent, kind  kind, and extremely hard working, and  _ god, _ he was really cute. Thor liked him a lot, and it was somewhat frustrating. Much to his relief, Bruce never seemed to notice that anything was going on. He tended to be very focused on his assignments in the classes they shared. 

 

Loki certainly noticed it though, and he’d had about enough of it. Thor might’ve thought he was being cautious and watching his brother get so wrapped up around something so singularly was definitely amusing, but the fact that Thor hadn’t done anything about it was starting to make him itch a little bit. He couldn’t stand to just let sleeping dogs lie for this long.

 

“Would you please stop making heart eyes at the guy? Just ask him out or something already.” Loki whispered with annoyance, unfortunately for him, sitting at the same table as Thor. He’d had to watch and listen to his brother fall head over heels for this boy for at least a month, and he was tiring of it rather quickly. Thor gave him a withering look and shoved his shoulder. 

 

“Shut up,” he growled under his breath. It wasn’t like he wanted to like Bruce as much as he did, it had just… Happened. And the truth was Thor really had no idea how to approach the whole thing. He didn’t really talk to Bruce as much as he wanted to, and asking him out out of the blue wasn’t really his thing, but he had no idea how to start talking to him more for a romantic date to even be an option. Everytime he tried he became horribly awkward, not really knowing what to do with himself to try and flirt. He just wanted to get to know Bruce better, but he didn’t even know where he’d start. 

 

He looked over at the other boy who was deep in concentration, hunched over his school work. Thor hadn’t been able to focus much in the classes they had together; he was always thinking about what he could say to Bruce after class, and then wound up never saying anything. Normally he wouldn’t have a problem asking someone out on a whim, people never really declined his offer, but he didn’t want to scare Bruce off, or have him say yes just because Thor was popular. He wanted to be romantic with Bruce, he wanted it to be the right time to ask him out. He didn’t want to do it at random. 

 

Thor was still deep in thought (and not doing his work) by the time the bell rang signifying that the class was over. He jumped slightly in his seat, somewhat startled by the noise before relaxing, watching Bruce leave the classroom too quickly for him to even try and say anything, anyway. He let out a long, suffering sigh and crossed his arms. He stood in front of his desk for a moment until Loki shoved him out of the way. 

 

“Will you please move, you pining cow? Some of us have other classes to get to,” he grumbled. Thor moved out of the way and glared at his brother. He let out a big huff, deflating, gathering his things and heading to his next class. Hopefully he’d figure something out soon. 

 

\--------------------

 

Bruce was pretty sure he was going to die. At least, he felt like he was going to die, and that was proof enough for him.

 

He hated when he let himself get like this. Crushes had never worked out for him before, so why would they now? Especially considering the completely outrageous circumstances he found himself in now. Thor. Thor, of all the people in his school, of course it had to be Thor.Thor was a very popular football player, and Bruce… was just a student, as far as he was concerned, and a very socially awkward one, at that. Tons of people liked Thor, and anyone else had about ten times more of a chance with him than Bruce did. 

 

This had all started when he had been paired up with Thor in their shared class. He’d expected to do all the work and have Thor do nothing but maybe watch him, possibly make fun of him for caring so much about the project, however that wasn’t what happened at all. Thor had done his best to pitch in during the project, and frequently talked about what they were doing, giving Bruce an opportunity to talk about science to someone other than Tony, and actually have them listen with interest. He’d found Thor really sweet, and it helped that he pretty much looked like a  _ god _ . 

 

He hated it all. He didn’t  _ want  _ to like someone, especially someone so unbelievably out of his league. They’d barely even talked since the project, and whenever they did he was pretty sure he made things awkward and scared Thor off, like he tended to do to most people. He was still thinking about how Thor would never like him back when he arrived at his next class, taking his seat next to Tony and giving a sigh as he dropped into the chair.

 

“What’s up, you look like your thinking up something awful,” Tony greeted, slapping a hand against Bruce’s back, causing him to wince slightly. Tony was a good friend, but sometimes he was a bit much. 

 

Bruce shrugged. “You know. The usual. Thinking about how Thor is very out of my league, how I’m probably going to die alone, all that great stuff,” Bruce said dryly. Tony rolled his eyes at him and scoffed.

 

“We’ve been over this. You’ll never know unless you try. Thor is a nice guy, I doubt he’d shoot you down, he might even like you back,” Tony said as he leaned back in his chair. They’d had this conversation multiple times, and everytime Bruce said the same thing:

 

“You know I don’t really want a pity date, and I think that’s what I’d get.” He wrinkled his nose at the idea. He honestly thought that might be worse than getting shot down. Tony started to say something else, but Bruce shook his head. He wanted to focus on class, at least he could hopefully think about something other than Thor that way, especially since he wasn't currently around.

 

It was pretty odd for him to be this worked up over someone anyway. Really it was just a silly crush, but despite this being the case and his determination to concentrate on his work, he found himself thinking about the smiling blonde. He’d been genuinely nice to him, he  _ was  _ just genuinely nice in general. That was something Bruce didn’t see a whole lot of, and seeing it in Thor was admirable. And attractive. A little on the cocky side, but charming all the same. That was a rare combination. He sighed, putting his head on the desk in frustration. He was supposed to be able to focus, but he was pretty sure he’d seen Thor giving him looks their entire last class earlier, and he really didn’t know what to make of that. 

 

\--------------------

 

Tony was getting really fed up with Bruce’s mopey pining, and he figured if he didn’t take it into his own hands then nothing would ever happen. Luckily, he had an idea. If he got someone else to back him up maybe things would go a little smoother. He thought of a few people he could try and get to work with him on this. Cap was a friend of Thor’s, but knowing him he’d probably try and have a fatherly talk with him instead of actually getting the two together. Nat and Clint were viable, but he wasn’t sure they would really work with him on it considering Nat was Bruce’s ex. Thor had a brother, though that wasn’t very well known considering they were practically polar opposites, but that being said his brother was an asshole. That was it, he was pretty sure he could use that to his advantage. If he told Loki that Bruce liked him, Loki would probably tell Thor, and since anyone could see that Thor liked Bruce, except for of course Bruce himself, Thor would finally ask Bruce out. So he set out to find the slithery little bastard wherever he was.

 

He ended up finding him outside the school’s theatre, obviously up to something, though Tony wasn’t sure what. He wasn't certain he wanted to know, in all truth.

 

“Hey, Loki,” he called out startling the other into turning to face him with a sour expression plastered on his face.

 

“What do you want Stark,” Loki stated more than asked with full disdain in his voice. Tony rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and leaning up against the wall. 

 

“I have some information you might find very interesting,” Tony said with a small shrug, “But maybe you won’t care, I’m not really sure.” Loki paused, then seemed to take interest and took a step closer to Tony with a curious—perhaps nosy was a better word—glint in his eyes.

 

“Yes, and what might that be?” He asked, raising a brow in interest. 

 

“Well, my friend Bruce, he happens to like your big brother.” A look of surprise crossed Loki’s face before he schooled his features once again. He clearly was a little taken aback by the revelation, which isn’t surprising since Bruce wasn’t exactly easy to read for most people. 

 

“Well isn’t that convenient,” Loki said with a small smile playing on his lips. Then it was Tony’s turn to look surprised. “My brother happens to like your friend Bruce very much, it’s rather annoying really.” 

 

However, Tony was less than surprised by this. Thor wasn’t a very subtle person, and besides that Tony was observant, it hadn’t taken him long to figure out that Thor liked Bruce. He was pretty sure anyone with working eyes would be able to see that.

 

“Yeah, I know,” Tony said carelessly with another little shrug. He laughs a little at Loki’s look of surprise. “Look, Thor isn’t exactly subtle. He looks at Bruce with heart eyes everytime they’re in the same room together for more than five minutes.” 

 

Loki opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it and instead just gave a simple nod and a sigh. “Well now, why are you telling me?” He crossed his arms, but his curiosity apparently hadn't been sated.

 

“Well I figured maybe you’d tell Thor. Then neither of us would have to deal with seeing them pine for each other anymore because Thor would just ask him out.” 

 

Loki shook his head, tapping his chin and looking thoughtful. “You’re right about me wanting Thor to stop pining, but he wants to get to _know_ Bruce before he asks him out,” he said with an exasperated sigh. Tony furrowed his brow, noting how odd it is that Thor would want to get to know someone first, but also trying to think of any possible way to get them to actually start talking. After a minute he snapped his fingers and pointed at Loki. 

 

“I’ve got it! Tutoring,” He says. 

 

Loki furrowed his brow. “What?” 

 

“Your brother isn’t the smartest, no offence.”

 

“None taken.” 

 

“He could probably use some tutoring, Bruce is super smart. So you could suggest to Thor he should ask Bruce to tutor him so they can spend more time together, and then bam he’ll end up asking him out.” 

 

Loki looked at him for a moment. “Well color me impressed Stark. That’s actually a decent idea.”

 

“So you’ll talk to Thor about tutoring, and I’ll make sure that Bruce says yes, and then everything will fall right into place.”

 

“I do believe we have a plan.”

 

\--------------------

  
  


Bruce just about had a heart attack when he heard the booming voice call his name out in the hallway. He turned to see a grinning Thor making his way over to him and he was pretty sure his heart was about to leap out of his throat.

 

“Hey, I need to talk to you about something,” Thor said, still smiling brightly, clapping a hand on Bruce’s shoulder, not helping his internal panic in the slightest. 

 

“Um, yeah, sure what do you need, Thor?” He asks hesitantly. His brain was moving a mile a minute as to how many different ways this whole situation could go wrong, but he tried not to let it show. 

 

Thor’s expression grew more serious, and the smile dropped off. “You see, I’m not doing so well in a few classes. I’m still passing, but I’d rather not get too close to failing, and I was wondering if you could possibly tutor me?” 

 

Tutoring.

 

Thor wanted Bruce to tutor him.

 

Bruce almost short circuited when he finally and completely processed what Thor has just asked him. He was very much asking to spend a lot of time with him, and as much as that sounded ideal, he was pretty terrified of it. 

 

“Uhm…” Before he could even say anything else Tony was there and answering for him.

 

“Yeah, Bruce would love to help you out with that, right Bruce?” he fired plainly, causing Bruce to deftly nod without thinking too hard about it. Thor’s face broke back into a brilliant smile aimed directly at Bruce, making his heart melt.  

 

“Perfect, I look forward to it,” Thor said, and with that he was gone. Bruce let out a long breath, deflating slightly, then instantly tensed back up and looked at Tony.

 

“Why did you do that?” He whispered angrily. Tony had practically come out of nowhere to answer something for him, and granted it did save him the embarrassing moment of going ‘ um uh um uh’ in front of his crush for ten minutes before eventually deciding it’d probably be too stressful for him to say yes to, but the fact still stood that that was incredibly stressful to say yes to and because of tony he had. 

 

“Because this is the perfect opportunity for you! You should be thanking me, not giving me a death glare. You can finally get him to fall in love with you and everything will fall perfectly into place,” Tony said with full confidence in himself. Bruce let out a groan. He couldn’t back out of it now without things being weird, and there was a part of him that was excited to spend a little more time with Thor. Then he thought about how nervous that made him and he swore he could feel a headache coming on. There  was no way this was going to go well at all.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to my friend on tumblr @wreckedrecords for helping me a ton with this chapter

Bruce straightened his clothes and hair trying to make himself look as presentable as possible. He was supposed to meet Thor by his locker after the last bell so they could go over to his house for their first tutoring session. Tutoring session. That’s all this was. It was  _ not  _ a date. It sort of felt like a date for him, spending any amount of time with someone outside of school, other than Tony, was pretty out of the ordinary. But it definitely wasn’t a date. He didn’t know why he felt so inclined to keep reminding himself of that, but he couldn’t seem to stop. 

 

“Hey Banner,” he heard a voice call from behind him. He turned, giving a slightly nervous smile when he saw Thor grinning at him. “You ready to go?” he asked putting a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. He tensed up slightly at the contact, but relaxed after a moment, trying not to let it get him too shaken. He shut his locker and adjusted the strap of his backpack before nodding, not quite meeting Thor’s steady gaze. 

 

They made their way through the crowd of students out to the equally crowded parking lot with little difficulty, and little talking. They get to Thor’s car parked in his designated senior spot. It was some sort of silver Lexus, and Bruce knew nothing about cars, but he knew this is an expensive and new car. He felt like it was probably worth about three of him. He barely wanted to get into it for fear that he’d somehow ruin it. They got into it and Bruce sat tensely in the front seat, trying to make his presence as small as possible. Thor didn’t really seem to notice, simply giving him a smile before they started to pull out of the parking lot. They started the drive, and before Bruce knew it they were on the rich side of town. He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he couldn’t help looking somewhat surprised.

 

After a little while, Thor spoke, his rather deep voice startling Bruce out of his thoughts. "Just so you know, my parents won't get home until later, but my brother will probably be home soon after us." He said evenly, one hand on the wheel. Bruce nodded. God, he hadn't even thought about Thor's  _ family _ . He was going to have to see Loki of all people, while he tried to tutor his  _ crush _ . This was going to be a mess. 

 

"So what class do you need help with in particular?" He asked, trying to get his mind off of that.

  
Thor shrugged a little, almost as if he was embarrassed. "English, particularly my Lit class." He sighed, but offered an encouraging smile. Bruce nodded again simply. That shouldn't be too hard to help with, he was better with numbers and science, but English wouldn't be too hard. 

 

"Okay, cool," he said with another nod feeling a little awkward. He looked out the window of the car still slightly surprised by all the luxurious houses, that seemed to be getting even more ridiculous in size, and surely price, as they went. He tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind that wasn't horribly awkward, so he simply kept his mouth shut, and his gaze out the window.   
  
Again, Thor broke the silence. "I want you to know I really appreciate you doing this for me. If I can pay you back somehow, just let me know." Bruce felt himself blush at Thor's words and he shifted slightly in his seat. 

 

"Oh, yeah of course, it's no problem. You don't have to do anything to pay me back either, I'm glad to help you out," he said. He was a little flattered by Thor's words, but he was just being nice, and that was part of why he liked him. He was nice.   
  
The young man huffed, and they fell into silence again, this time only ending once Thor pulled into the drive of the most ridiculously grand house Bruce had ever seen, the young man giving a smile. "Well, here we are." 

 

Bruce nodded numbly, he was a little in awe of the huge house, and more than a little intimidated. If he'd thought Thor's car was expensive, his house had to be worth more than Bruce's life, though that wasn't much. They got out of the car and Bruce felt very out of place walking through the grandiose doors of his house.   
  
It was even more intimidating that Thor seemed to fit right in, not looking the least out of place as he got out and headed up to the front door before glancing back with a smile. "You coming?" Bruce snapped out of his reverie to look at a smiling Thor, who seemed very happy to invite him in.

 

"Yeah, of course," he said a little sheepishly, quickly following Thor into his home. Thor held the front door for him, kicking off his shoes just inside the door and picking them up. 

 

"The dining room is this way." He said, his bag over his shoulder.   
  


Bruce awkwardly took off his shoes, following Thors example, and headed towards the dining room with him. He set his stuff down on the table and sat down, waiting for Thor to tell him exactly what he was supposed to be helping him with. The young man set down his things as well, dropping his shoes in a basket by another door and going to the fridge. "Want anything to drink or eat?" He offered.

  
"No, I'm fine, thanks," he politely declined. He always felt awkward when people offered him things, and even if he wanted something, he usually declined.    
  
He looked around himself, still pretty in awe at how big Thor’s house was. It was a mansion. He didn't think he'd ever been in a mansion before, and honestly it was a little surreal. He felt severely out of place. Bruce was pretty sure he'd even seen a grand staircase coming in. Who had grand staircases anymore?    
  
Finally, Thor came over to the large dining table and began to pull out his books. "I guess we'd better get started then, hm?"   
  


"Uh yeah," Bruce said, feeling a little spaced out. He looked at Thor and was struck for the millionth time how gorgeous and out of his league he was. Why did him even just speaking to Bruce get his heart racing?    
  
"So what do you need help with most? We can start there."   
  
"Well, do you think you could help me write this essay due next week?" He tried. "I haven't even started, and I'm really no good at English." He chuckled, sitting down right next to Bruce as he pulled out a book and some papers. The close proximity of Thor right next to him made his heart beat even faster, and he was pretty sure he might even be blushing, which was  _ ridiculous _ . He was supposed to be tutoring, that was it, he should  _ not _ be thinking about what it would be like if they were dating, but of course he was. He shook his head a little as if to dislodge the thought and focus in on what he was helping Thor with. 

 

"Yeah, okay, so what's the paper supposed to be about and how can I help you get started?" He asks. He'd never helped anyone write a paper, if people came to him it was usually asking help on science, but considering Thor was in the same science class as him he had to be pretty good at it. It wasn't that Bruce was bad at English, he was pretty damned good at writing papers, but he was just out of his element a bit.   
  
"Well, we were supposed to read a book—which I did—and then write a paper on the use of language in the novel." He furrowed his brow a bit, showing Bruce the paper, leaning a bit closer to read it with him. "See?"   
  


Bruce looked over the rubric nodding and trying to ignore the fact that Thor was only a few centimeters away from actually leaning against him. "Okay, so let’s start with a basic outline then," Bruce suggested pulling out a notebook of his own, and grabbing the book Thor had set out. He looked over the copy of The Three Musketeers, and nearly groaned. He hated that book. No wonder Thor needed help.   
  
He nodded, brows furrowing as they began to work, going back and forth between the prompt, the book, and the outline. Thor had put stickynotes on a few pages, but he hadn't annotated a bit. He hadn't even underlined anything or circled phrases, which made it a bit harder to find examples. Thor seemed to at least grasp the concepts, and he followed what Bruce explained-- which was a lot-- but they'd been going over it for at least an hour now and Bruce was getting a little tired of it. They'd made a lot of progress, and they'd almost finished the outline. He almost wanted to ask if Thor wanted to take a quick break, but he also didn't want to be rude. He bit his lip before finally speaking. "You must feel a little fried, do you want to take a short break?" He asked hesitantly, looking at the other who was rather close to him at the moment.

  
He looked over at him, sitting up some, and they were even closer than Bruce first realized. This close, he could swear he saw a blush creep across Thor's cheeks before he offered a charming, lazy smile. "Sounds good to me." He said, voice a bit quieter than normal. Bruce's heart fluttered and he had the urge to lean in and kiss the smile off of Thor’s face. He quickly scooted away clearing his throat, sure he was blushing himself with how warm his face felt. "Okay, uh, great," he said rubbing the back of his neck.   
  
If he didn't know better, he would have sworn Thor almost looked disappointed. "Want anything to eat?" He offered.   
  


Bruce didn't feel like he could say no twice, so he simply nodded. "Yeah sure thanks," he said politely. "Uh, what do you have?" He asked. They probably had loads of fancy food judging by the house, and he was a little worried about having to try and pick something from foods he couldn't even name.   
  
The young man hummed in thought, getting up and going to the fridge. "We have popcorn, chips, uhhh... We've got orange juice, yogurt, hot pockets, and leftover pizza." He shrugged, crossing his arms as he looked inside. "I mean, we have other stuff, but those are the basics I guess."

  
Bruce was a little surprised he was so laughably wrong, and he cracked a smile. "Chips sound good, thanks," he said standing up to stretch, he'd been sitting for way too long. It was odd, but he felt a lot more comfortable now than when they'd started, granted his heart still sort of beat out of his chest every time Thor so much as smiled, but he at least could relax a little bit in the in between.   
  
  
Thor pulled out a can of soda, cracking it open. Instead of asking, he got out a second, opening it as well and then shutting the fridge. He pulled out a large bag and brought the items over to the table. "We can eat anywhere that has hardwood floor. Otherwise if we make a mess my mom will freak." He said coolly, taking a drink of his soda and sighing.   
  


Bruce nodded, that made sense, besides he wasn't planning on eating anywhere but the table anyway. Thor opened the bag and started munching, so Bruce followed suit. He also took the soda Thor had brought out for him and took a drink.

 

This was actually really nice. He gave Thor a smile, and he absolutely lit up causing Bruce's heart to beat a little faster, and smile a little wider himself.   
  
  
However, it seemed as though the universe hated Bruce more than he'd previously anticipated. In fact, it hated him a lot.   
  
The front door slammed, and the sound of footsteps was soon followed by the appearance of none other than Loki, looking tired and—well, and pissed, to tell the truth. He glared at them both, then grimaced. "Please, no need for thanks, I can taste the sexual tension from here, just your friendly neighborhood knife coming by to cut it in half."    
  
Thor rolled his eyes, sitting back in his seat. "Brother."    
  
"Well, since you asked, I guess I must tell you about my daunting day." He sighed heavily, pulling open the fridge with a wrinkle of his nose. 

 

Bruce chose to fully ignore the sexual tension comment, and keep eating chips. He didn't really like Loki, he was pretty much an asshole, hearing him ramble about his day from the kitchen solidified that he was a  _ dramatic _ asshole. Though it  _ was _ sort of amusing.   
  
  
"... and THEN had the audacity to talk to me afterwards and tried to- are you even listening?" When Bruce looked up, Thor was looking right at him, but glanced over.    
  
"Sorry, no. I was actually trying to tune you out."   
  
"Could you at least nod your head every time I pause so you're pretending to pretend?"   
  
"Mhm." He grinned at Bruce, leaning closer again. "Should we get back to work?"   
Bruce smiled back feeling his heart leap into his throat again at the close proximity. Thor must have just been really comfortable around him, which was nice, but it also made him want more. Not that he'd ever get around to telling Thor that. He was terrified of rejection even more at this point. 

 

"Yeah let's get back to it," he said looking suddenly away from Thor's gaze.Thor blinked, surprised, but looked down at the paper while Loki rambled on. 

 

They started working again, and eventually Loki stopped talking and wandered off. Before Bruce knew it, it was getting late. He looked at his watch and rubbed the back of his neck. They'd finished the outline, which was no small feat, but Bruce probably needed to go home. Thor probably had a family dinner he was going to cut into or something. "Okay, well...I think that's probably as much as we can get done for today, I should probably be heading home, could you give me a ride?" No sooner were the words out of his mouth than he realized that would mean Thor had to see where he lived, and that he wasn't by any means well off. Not that Thor seemed that shallow, but it made him anxious.   
  
"Of course, I drove you here, didn't I?" He smiled, throwing his stuff into his bag again. "I didn't even notice how late it got. Sorry."   
  
"No it's fine! I'm glad we got so much done," Bruce said honestly. He didn't mind how much time he'd spent with Thor, in fact it had been really nice. He tried to push the thought of Thor judging him for where he lived out of his head, and he gave him a small smile.   
  
"I really do owe you big time for helping me out." He said, his tone sincere.   
  


Bruce felt himself blushing and he shrugged. "It's not big deal, I'm glad to help."   
  
He grabbed his shoes again, then headed toward the door. "It means a lot to me, really."   
Bruce followed after him, putting his own shoes on somewhat clumsily. 

 

"Well...I'm um glad," he said awkwardly. Thor smiled, and then they got into his car.

 

This time, it was somehow less uncomfortable and awkward, and Thor pulled out of the drive. "So where do you live?" He gave Thor his address and watched him type it into his phone, trying not to let the anxiety get to him, but still his chest was tight.   
  
"Oh, cool, I have a friend who lives near you." He said pleasantly, relaxed as he headed in that direction. Bruce blinked a few time in surprise processing Thor's words. He should've known that Thor wasn't the kind of person who would care about where he lived. All the same he felt a lot of tension leave his body, and curiosity enter in its stead. 

 

"Really who is it?" he asked curious if he knew where Thor's friend lived.   
  
"Steve Rodgers. You know him?"   
  


Bruce blanched a little bit at the revelation. He had no idea that Steve, the pretty popular captain of the football team, lived anywhere near him. "Yeah, I know him, I had no idea he lived anywhere near me though," he said. He supposed he shouldn't be that surprised, Steve had always acted pretty down to earth. 

Thor nodded. "Yeah, I used to drive him home after practice when it was raining."   
  


"Oh, that's nice," he said with a small smile on his face. Thor really was such a nice guy it was ridiculous. "Thanks for taking me home by the way," he said, glad that he didn't have to call his dad to ask for a ride, he had a feeling that wouldn't have gone well for him.   
.

"Hey, if you ever need a ride, just ask." He offered with a smile. "I'm pretty busy with school and football, but I'll do what I can."   
  


Bruce smiled back warmly. "Thanks." And with that and a bit more time they had arrived at Bruce's house. They pulled into the driveway and Bruce let out a breath preparing himself for what he was about to do. "Hey, um we should exchange numbers, you know for scheduling more tutoring, and if you need anything else," he suggested feeling very tense. He thought mildly in the back of his head Tony would probably be half proud, he  _ had _ basically just asked for Thor's number.

  
"Oh yeah, totally." He agreed without an ounce of hesitation. "Here, give me your phone and I'll text myself." Bruce handed over his phone watching Thor type in his number. It wasn't like he was going to text him, at least not first, but it was a little bit exciting to have his crush's number.   
  
Thor was smiling the whole time, sending them message and then offering it back with a grin. "There. I'll see you tomorrow, alright?"   
  


Bruce's breath caught in his throat at Thor's dazzling smile, and he took his phone back with a sheepish smile in return. "Yeah, I'll see  you tomorrow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +These boys,,,,,, I love them but they're dumb
> 
> +I may be projecting on bruce a bit so sorry about that lmao
> 
> +comments and kudos are greatly appreciated!!
> 
> +You can always bug me on tumblr @sarahkatlinewalker


	3. Chapter Three

They’d been doing the tutoring for about three weeks now, three times a week, and actually talking quite a bit in between. Bruce had to admit it was nice, but it was also incredibly painful. The more time he spent around Thor, the more he liked him, and the more false hope he got. There were times that he really thought Thor maybe liked him, but then he reasoned being flirty and charming and getting in people’s personal space was just how he was around most people, because why wouldn’t it be? That made more sense than him liking Bruce. 

He was probably overthinking things, and really he just needed to get over it, but it was hard damn it. Thor was funny and sweet and beautiful, and honestly none of it was fair. He tried to shake the thoughts from his head as he headed towards his locker to wait for Thor. 

However he didn’t have to wait at all. Thor was already standing there waiting with a smile. He smiled back giving an awkward little wave.

“Hey,” he greeted softly, as he started to take a few books out of his backpack to put into his locker. 

“How was your day?” Thor asked, still smiling at him brightly. 

“It was good I guess,” Bruce said with a small shrug. He’d stopped saying ‘fine’ because usually Thor tried to ask more, and he wasn’t really interested in talking about how boring his day was. Today had been an average day all around, and honestly he was just a little tired. Not that Thor needed to know that. 

“That’s good, by the way we’re gonna have to cut tutoring a little bit short tonight, I’m throwing a kegger while my parents are away for the weekend.” Bruce’s eyes widened, and he gave Thor a mildly incredulous look. He wasn’t exactly surprised Thor liked to party, but the fact he was throwing it while his parents were away was such a dangerous concept to Bruce. “You should stay for it, it’d be fun,” Thor added, and if Bruce didn’t know better he’d say he looked hopeful at the idea. That was laughable. 

“I, uh-- that’s-- that’s not really my thing,” He said giving an apologetic look as he adjusted his backpack strap, not quite meeting Thor’s eye. “Sorry,” he added when he noted Thor looked a little bit disappointed. He nodded nevertheless, seeming to understand. 

“That’s okay...But yeah, I’ll make sure that you’re out by the time people start to show up,” He said smiling once again. Bruce let himself relax a little at that, and smiled gratefully. 

After that they went about their normal routine of getting in Thor’s car and heading to his house. They made idle conversation on the way there, the awkward silences long since gone, though there were many times that Bruce felt a little awkward purely because of his crush. It wasn’t nearly as bad as when they’d first started all this. He was much more comfortable around Thor in general. 

They arrived at the house, and for once Loki had beat them, and as soon as they came in was already ranting about his day. They ignored him as usual in favor of talking to each other and getting started. Bruce caught a very pointed look from Loki, almost as if to say he was doing something wrong, though what, he was sure he’d never know. Loki escaped up the stairs to his room after a while, leaving the two alone to work on yet another paper. Thankfully they’d moved on from The Three Musketeers, though he felt Slaughter-House 5 may have been harder purely because of the jumpy and sporadic style. The narrator’s telling of the story would harder to follow relatively frequently.

“So wait-- I’m confused,” Thor said, furrowing his brow as they read over a page. Buce let out a long suffering sigh and rested his head in his hands. 

“Me too,” he agreed, pushing up his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. It wasn’t even the language that was hard in this, it was everything. With Thor’s ADHD and dyslexia the book was becoming one of the hardest things to get through for them so far. “Let’s just, try and start with answering the questions for the main outline, and move from there,” he suggested with a sigh. Thor nodded, and leaned closer, their shoulders touching as they read the questions the paper wanted them to address. Bruce still felt a flutter in his chest everytime it happened, but it was fairly common for Thor to make casual physical contact. Bruce supposed that was just how some people were. He tended to be terrified of physical contact unless he was prepared and comfortable with it. He’d become rather comfortable with Thor, it seemed.

They worked for a quite a while on the outline, taking several small breaks throughout, but once they really got into it, they lost track of time. By the time Bruce looked at the clock, he was worried. Thor had said that they’d have to leave early, and he was sure they probably should have left about ten minutes ago. 

“Hey should we--” Bruce was cut off by the sound of several very loud knocks on the door, which made Thor’s head snap over to the time rather quickly.

“Shit,” Thor muttered under his breath, standing to go answer the noise. Bruce stayed put, feeling his heart rate skyrocket at the suddenness of the situation. What if those were guests and now Thor couldn’t take him home? What if he had to stay for the party? He was not well prepared for that. Maybe, maybe, he could have handled that if he’d had a few days to mentally prepare himself for how completely draining that type of thing would be for him, but no he hadn’t known anything about it until today, and now he was probably going to have to stay. 

Thor came back in with two other large guys, likely from the football team, plus Steve Rogers. Thor gave him an apologetic look and started putting his school work away. 

“Hey, sorry, they showed up early to be helpful and set up, I trust them so we could leave to bring you back home, or...I mean you could always stay for the party. I know I’d love to have you there,” Thor said, and he looked so hopeful for Bruce to stay, which did things to Bruce’s heart, and he didn’t want to be an inconvenience by making him take him home when he wanted to start setting up for his party. So of course…

“Yeah, I’ll just stay,” He said with a forced smile. Thor absolutely lit up at his answer and he went as far as to hug him with a thank you, which made him blush and his heart beat even faster (which seemed impossible at this point), but he was somewhat used to all that accompanying Thor’s thank you’s by now.

“Great!” he said clapping his hands together as he stood back from the hug, “let’s start setting things up then.” 

Bruce tried to stay out of the way mostly, every once in a while asking what he could do, and doing it. The alcohol they were setting out, which there was a lot of, made him even more wary of how this party was going to go. His stress was already on the rise, and the party hadn’t even started yet. But maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as he thought it would be. He tried to take deep breaths and not overthink it too much, reminding himself to keep breathing, but it was getting hard.

He could do this, he’d just stick by Thor, turn down alcohol, and breath. He could do this. He kept repeating this in his head until people started arriving, and he inched closer to Thor’s side. He sort of wanted to hide behind him to avoid everything and everyone here. 

Unfortunately sticking by Thor meant he had to be around all the people that wanted to talk to him, which turned out to be quite a few people. It was honestly very frustrating to see so many girls flirting with him, despite how, for whatever reason, he brushed them all off, he was generally friendly back to them, which reaffirmed Bruce's theory that he was just being nice and that he didn’t like him as more than a friend. Thor was a little tipsy, but honestly he didn’t seem to be drinking all that much. He would occasionally check in on Bruce and ask if he was having fun, to which would cause him to lie and say yes, because he didn’t want to disappoint him. He was thankful for the check ins nevertheless. 

Thankfully Bruce hadn’t been offered much to drink, and when he had been offered anything they seemed to accept the no he gave very easily. They probably thought something around the lines of ‘more for me’, which was more than fine with Bruce. Maybe drinking could be fun, and maybe it would loosen him up, but he wasn’t exactly enthralled by the idea of testing it out in an already anxiety-inducing environment.

Eventually his luck seemed to run out. 

“Hey, dude, try this,” someone slurred as they offered him a red solo cup full of clear liquid. 

“No thanks, I’m okay,” he said politely as he could. 

The guy squinted at him. “Don’t be a fuckin’ pussy dude, just drink it,” he said shoving the cup at Bruce. He felt his anxiety shoot up at the prospect of someone not leaving him alone when he said no, but he shook his head again. “No thank you.” The drunk guy rolled his eyes and pushed the cup at him again, sloshing some of the liquid on him in the process. “Just take one drink pussy, it’s not even that strong,” he said with a laugh, gaining a bit of traction from a couple of guys with him. Bruce shook his head once more saying a firm no. The intoxicated teen looked at him one more time before shrugging and wandering off with their friends, not before throwing a couple slurs at him first of course.

He let out a huge sigh of relief, feeling slightly proud of himself for standing his ground so well. The pride however vanished when he looked around and realized that Thor was absolutely nowhere to be seen. His eyes widened and he could feel his chest tighten up. He weaved his way through the crowd, trying to find the tall blonde, but he couldn’t seem to spot him anywhere. He felt the fear and anxiety settling firmly in his chest, making it tight and hard to breathe. His one anchor in this house full of drunk strangers was now MIA, nowhere to be seen or heard. He tried in vain to breath in a comfortable amount of air, only seeming to make the problem worse. He couldn’t breathe. He felt like he couldn’t move. He was alone, surrounded by people, and he felt like he couldn’t breath. He didn’t know a single person here, what if they started trying to talk to him? What if someone tried to offer him alcohol again? He felt lost and alone, and frankly absolutely terrified. 

He was frantic now, looking everywhere for Thor, but he had no idea in what direction he’d even possibly gone in the massive house. He felt tears welling up in his eyes, and his shallow breathing got even worse. He stood in the middle of the crowded house, feeling like he might pass out for a moment, tears threatening to spill over. Someone bumped into him and gave him a dirty look and he let out a weak gasp. They rounded on him and narrowed their eyes at him. They looked him over, then seemed to notice he had tears in his eyes and their eyes widened. 

“Are you about to fuckin cry dude?” the other person asked in a seemingly surprised tone. 

Bruce didn’t think, he turned and sprinted up the stairs and into the nearest room, closing the door behind him. That’s when the tears really started coming. He slid down the door until he was sitting pushed up against it, pulling his knees to his chest as he sobbed. 

He wanted to get a hold of himself, this felt pathetic, but he couldn’t stop crying, and he couldn’t breathe, which was all just making him cry even harder. He sat there trying to breathe, only succeeding in making himself cry harder and breathe worse for god knows how long before he felt a push on the door. He felt himself stop breathing altogether, and then again more erratically as his heart beat in his ears and he didn’t know what to do. He felt completely frozen. He didn’t have the voice to tell whoever it was to leave. 

Then he heard a gentle voice call, “Bruce?” He instantly recognized it was Thor. Another gentle nudge against the door. “Is someone in there? This is my room, so if it’s someone other than Bruce please get out, and if it is Bruce, please let me in.” Bruce really didn’t want Thor to see him like this. He hadn’t even realized he was in his room, and now he figured he had to let him in. He moved away from the door enough for it to be opened, and he hid his face against his knees, still crying for whatever godforsaken reason.

He heard footsteps come towards him and he shrank in on himself. “Hey,” he heard Thor’s soft voice, “Are you okay if I touch you?” Bruce shrugged his shoulders and after another moment nodded his head. He felt big hands grab his own and simply hold them, somehow pulling him down, grounding him. He felt a little less like he was spiraling into the abyss, now just drifting back towards calm and reality. He lifted his head up and looked at Thor, no judgment in his eyes, only genuine concern. He gave his hands a small squeeze and Thor did the same. He still felt like he couldn’t breathe, and tears were still streaming down his face, but he felt safer. “Can you just breathe with me? In through your nose, hold… and out through your mouth, and in through your nose…” Thor kept talking him through breathing, voice soft and strangely soothing, and Bruce did his best to follow along with the counting. His chest loosened a little bit, and the tears stopped coming after a while. He let himself relax his body a bit, and he looked up at Thor with watery eyes.

Thor gave him a small smile and squeezed his hands slightly. “Are you okay?” he asked softly, still obviously very concerned. Bruce swallowed thickly, pretty sure he might start crying again, and nodded slightly. 

“Sorry,” he whispered, looking down to avoid Thor’s gaze. Thor furrowed his brow, leaning in to try and meet Bruce’s gaze. 

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, if anything I’m sorry I lost you in the crowd,” he said giving his hands another small squeeze. “Can I give you a hug?” Thor asked cautiously. Bruce looked up at him and after a moment of hesitation he nodded, and then suddenly he was being pulled into a strong warm embrace. He let himself sink into it for once, his eyes tearing back up as he hugged him back, just letting himself take in the comfort, the thought of his crush not even coming into play. 

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked once again as he pulled away from the hug. Bruce wiped his face and nodded. “So what happened?” he asked his voice still low and soft. Bruce let out a long shaky sigh and looked away. 

“I just-- I couldn’t find you, and I um, I started kind of panic, then someone saw I was about to cry and tried to um-- they seemed like they were making fun of me? So I came into the nearest room and sort of had an anxiety attack,” he said, his voice wavering the whole way through as tears welled up again. God he felt pathetic. He hated getting like this, and he hated it more when someone had to see it and deal with it.

Thor looked at him sympathetically and he gave his hands a small squeeze. He seemed like he was thinking about doing something as he looked at Bruce, but then he just looked at the door with a furrowed brow. “You can go sit on my bed, I’ll be right back,” he said before getting up and slipping out the door back into the roaring party. 

Bruce got up and went to sit on Thor’s huge bed feeling absolutely exhausted. He let out a long sigh and fell back onto the very comfortable bed. He really didn’t want to go home right now, his dad would probably be less mad if he never showed back up again than he would be if he showed up this late and woke him up. He felt tears welling back up and suddenly he was crying again. He heard the door open back up and Thor walked back in coming over to his bed. He sat on the edge and looked at him with concern. 

“Are you okay?” he asked again at the sight of fresh tears. Bruce nodded and wiped his face off quickly. 

“I um-- I just don’t really want to try and go home, or see anyone passing through the party to leave,” he said honestly. Thor nodded and looked away for a moment. 

“Well, I asked Loki to keep an eye of things until everyone leaves, I was planning on taking you home, but you can stay here tonight if you want?” Thor suggested. The idea seemed really appealing to Bruce in the moment, but he didn’t want to inconvenience Thor and he was sure he would. He opened his mouth to say so but Thor cut him off. “And don’t worry about being a bother. After all of this being my fault it’s the least I can do,” he said. Bruce looked at him wide eyed for a moment, then swallowed thickly nodding.

“Thank you,” he said his voice coming out small and quiet. Thor grabbed one of his hands again, and held it giving him a soft look. 

“How did you know just what to do?” He asked quietly. Thor gave him a crooked little smile. 

“Loki used to have anxiety attacks, I was just sort of copying what I’d seen my mom do with him, I’m glad it helped at least a little bit,” he said rubbing gentle circles on his hand with his thumb, which was incredibly comforting. Bruce nodded and yawned. He felt more drained then he could remember being in a very long time. “Do you want to sleep?” Thor asked. Bruce nodded and Thor stood up to leave, but Bruce tightened his hold on Thor’s hand. 

“I don’t want to be alone,” he whispered rawly. Thor sat back down looking at him with an odd look in his eyes. 

“You’re not alone,” he whispered softly. And then Bruce slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep, still holding Thor’s hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> +Chapters will likely take a bit longer now due to my busy schedule
> 
> +this chapter feels jumbled and messy but oH WELL HOPE YALL LIKED IT ANYWAY
> 
> +I projected again dfhslkdj lmao
> 
> +Tell me what you think, comments are always appreciated! 
> 
> +you can always bug me on tumblr @sarahkatlinewalker!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [thor, bruce, & tutoring](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15665784) by [chemsworth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chemsworth/pseuds/chemsworth)




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